Flushing dogs and clicker training

The other day my friend Lisa told me about a YouTube video where a guy trains his flushing dog, and I simply must share this video with you, because it shows such, in my opinion, lovely work AND the guy uses a clicker! 😉 He uses it as a reward marker, so I have no idea whether he incorporates the clicker philosophy in the whole training chain but either way it got me in a very good mood.

The video also shows a great example of how a spaniel should act on a flush, see around the 0:50 mark of the video when the dog comes upon two rabbits at once and how nicely it stops on the spot.

Besides this I’m extremely impressed by how nicely the dog releases what it has flushed out and continues to quarter on the signal by turning AWAY from the flush. My, my that’s nice! (Around 2:40 in the video). I’m training this right now. I think it’s very easy to get hung up on letting the dog continue the way the bird/rabbit disappeared and the pull a dog feels that way can make the dog a little out of control and just runs on without remembering its task – flushing. At the very least I’ve seen it in both Tassla and some training partners’ dogs. The pull is of course also reinforced by (too often?) letting the dog retrieve what was flushed.

The video also shows some nice directions and here the handler uses a clicker on bringing the rabbit to hand and gives a treat as a reward. He also rewards the dog for heeling nicely (around 7:00 in the video).